1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of separating a slice base mounting member, e.g., of carbon or the like, from sliced wafers, and to a jig for treating the wafers, which is adapted to a carrier for transferring the wafers and for separating the slice base mounting member from the wafers in the method.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in order to manufacture semiconductor wafers by slicing an ingot of silicon or the like, a slice base mounting member (a supporting member for slicing) made of carbon or the like is fixed to the ingot with an adhesive, and the ingot with the slice base mounting member is sliced by an inner diameter saw slicing machine, a wire saw slicing machine or the like to form a large number of wafers, and then the slice base mounting member is removed from the sliced wafers.
In the conventional process to separate the slice base mounting member from the sliced wafers, a number of containers 110, in each of which a number of wafers W with slice base mounting members C are arranged and stood at uniform gaps so that the wafer surfaces thereof faced sideways, are arranged in a basket 111 for containing the containers 110, as shown in FIG. 14. The whole basket 111 having the containers 110 therein is immersed into a chemical liquid or the like in a separation tank 112, and thereby the slice base mounting members C are separated from the wafers W.
However, such a conventional process has the following problems.
That is, in such a process, because it is necessary to wait until the chemical liquid or the like sufficiently infiltrates into the adhesive which exists on the interface between the wafers W and the slice base mounting members C so that the slice base mounting members are naturally separated from the wafers W, there is a problem of taking a long time for separation of the slice base mounting members C. Because the wafers W are arranged and stood in each container 110 and the containers 110 are horizontally lined up in parallel in the basket 111, when the installation area for the separation tank 112 is restrictive, the number of wafers W to which separation treatment can be performed at a time is restricted. Therefore, there is also a problem of an inefficient treatment.
On the other hand, in order to solve the problem, when a plurality of containers 110 are stacked in parallel, it is possible to increase the number of wafers W to which separation treatment can be performed at a time. However, because there are spacings between adjacent wafers W in each container 110, during the separation treatment, the slice base mounting members such as carbon members which were separated from the wafers W in the upper side gets into the spaces between the wafers W in the lower side to adhere to the front and rear surfaces of the wafers W again. Accordingly, because another considerable time for removing the re-adhered slice base mounting members, e.g., of carbon, is required and thereby accumulation of members is caused, the problems of aggravation of operating efficiency of the whole separating apparatus including the next cleaning apparatus are encountered.